2of 61Firefighters from Eugene, Oregon, from left, Cameron McConnell, David Lopez-Parker, Skylar Lillingston and John Peterson work on mop up near Sugarloaf Ridge State Park Oct. 19, 2017 in Kenwood, Calif.Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle

3of 61Jim Brown from Riverside County Fire works on mop up near Sugarloaf Ridge State Park Oct. 19, 2017 in Kenwood, Calif.Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle

4of 61Smoke in Napa Valley as the sun sets near Calistoga, Calif., Oct. 11, 2017. Sonoma and Napa counties may be best known for wine and agriculture, but this is horse country, too  around 26,000 equine animals live here, and thousands had to be evacuated. (Jason Henry/The New York Times)Photo: JASON HENRY, NYT

5of 61Smoke from the Tubbs Fire rises high into the air as the firestorm continues to burn out of control near Santa Rosa, Calif. on Wednesday Oct. 11, 2017.Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

6of 61Petaluma firefighter Greg Taylor takes a break at a large home that burned in The Ranch subdivision in Sonoma, Calif., on Saturday, October 14, 2017.Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle

7of 61Santa Cruz firefighters' Josiah Gist and Ian Adams carry a hose over the pool of a large home that burned in The Ranch subdivision in Sonoma, Calif., on Saturday, October 14, 2017.Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle

8of 61The chimney is all that remains standing at a large home that burned in The Ranch subdivision in Sonoma, Calif., on Saturday, October 14, 2017.Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle

9of 61Three firefighters look at a large home that burned in The Ranch subdivision in Sonoma, Calif., on Saturday, October 14, 2017.Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle

10of 61A firefighter walks through what remains of a large home that burned in The Ranch subdivision in Sonoma, Calif., on Saturday, October 14, 2017.Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle

11of 61Josiah Gist (right) joins fellow Santa Cruz firefighters in using pool water in firefighting efforts at a large home that burned in The Ranch subdivision in Sonoma, Calif., on Saturday, October 14, 2017.Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle

12of 61Smoke in the hills east of Sonoma, Calif., on Saturday, October 14, 2017.Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle

14of 61Search and Rescue personnel look for human remains in the Journey's End Mobile Home park following the damage caused by the Tubbs Fire on Oct. 13, 2017 in Santa Rosa. Twenty four people have died in wildfires that have burned tens of thousands of acres and destroyed over 3,500 homes and businesses in several Northern California counties.Photo: Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

15of 61A CalFire firefighter uses a hand tool as he monitors a firing operation while battling the Tubbs Fire on Oct. 12, 2017 near Calistoga, Calif. At least thirty one people have died in wildfires that have burned tens of thousands of acres and destroyed over 3,500 homes and businesses in several Northern California counties. Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

16of 61A stairwell smolders as a home burns during the Tubbs Fire on Oct. 12, 2017 near Calistoga, Calif. At least thirty one people have died in wildfires that have burned tens of thousands of acres and destroyed over 3,500 homes and businesses in several Northern California counties. Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

17of 61CalFire firefighters monitor a firing operation as they battle the Tubbs Fire on Oct. 12, 2017 near Calistoga, Calif. At least thirty one people have died in wildfires that have burned tens of thousands of acres and destroyed over 3,500 homes and businesses in several Northen California counties.Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

18of 61Firefighters try to extinguish a house fire during the Tubbs Fire on Oct. 12, 2017 near Calistoga, Calif. At least thirty one people have died in wildfires that have burned tens of thousands of acres and destroyed over 3,500 homes and businesses in several Northern California counties. Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

19of 61CalFire firefighters monitor a firing operation as they battle the Tubbs Fire on Oct.12, 2017 near Calistoga, Calif. At least thirty one people have died in wildfires that have burned tens of thousands of acres and destroyed over 3,500 homes and businesses in several Northern California counties. Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

20of 61A CalFire firefighter uses a hose to monitor hot spots during a firing operation while battling the Tubbs Fire on Oct. 12, 2017 near Calistoga, Calif. At least thirty one people have died in wildfires that have burned tens of thousands of acres and destroyed over 3,500 homes and businesses in several Northern California counties. Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

21of 61Firefighters try to extibguish a house fire during the Tubbs Fire on Oct. 12, 2017 near Calistoga, Calif. At least thirty one people have died in wildfires that have burned tens of thousands of acres and destroyed over 3,500 homes and businesses in several Northern California counties. Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

22of 61Jimmie Allen, pries a piece of metal that had melted during the fire and had solidified next to his car in Coffey Park on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017 in Napa. Allen's home in Coffey Park burned in the Tubbs Fire.Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

23of 61Smoke from the Tubbs Fire rises high into the air as the firestorm continues to burn out of control near Santa Rosa on Wednesday Oct. 11, 2017.Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

24of 61BART police officer Trabanino mans a Tubbs Fire checkpoint on Bennett Valley Rd. in Santa Rosa. on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017. He was telling a evacuee that the area is still closed to residents.Photo: Noah Berger, Special to The Chronicle

25of 61Homes leveled by the Tubbs fire line the Coffey Park neighborhood of Santa Rosa on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017.Photo: Noah Berger, Special to The Chronicle

26of 61Rubble lines the interior of a K-mart store scorched by the Tubbs fire in Santa Rosa on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017.Photo: Noah Berger, Special to The Chronicle

28of 61A primary school classroom at St. Rose School is seen with damages caused by the Tubbs fire in Santa Rosa on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017.Photo: Alex Washburn, The Chronicle

29of 61Karen Balestieri and Heidi Facciano (left to right) marvel at a pond of live koi fish which survived the Tubbs fire in the neighborhood referred to by locals as 'old fountaingrove' in Santa Rosa on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017.Photo: Alex Washburn, The Chronicle

30of 61A helicopter makes a water drop on flames from the Tubbs fire on a hill as it gets closer to homes off of Bennett Valley Road on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017 in Santa Rosa. Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

31of 61Brian Kitchen (left) and son Tarreyl Kitchen (right) wash their hands off in a pool after sifting through the remains of their house after it was destroyed in the Tubbs fire in the Coffey Park neighborhood of Santa Rosa on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017.Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, The Chronicle

32of 61A wall stands at a Chanterelle Circle home destroyed by the Tubbs fire in the Fountaingrove area of Santa Rosa on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017.Photo: Noah Berger, Special to The Chronicle

33of 61Smoke from the Tubbs Fire rises high into the air as the firestorm continues to burn out of control near Santa Rosa on Wednesday Oct. 11, 2017.Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

34of 61Firefighters work to contain the Tubbs fire at the Overlook apartment complex off of Bicentennial Way in Santa Rosa on Monday, Oct. 9, 2017.Photo: Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

35of 61A resident rushes to save his home as an out of control wildfire moves through the area on October 9, 2017 in Glen Ellen, Calif.Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

46of 61People watch the sunset through smoke in the air from a fire on Mount Veeter in Napa on Tuesday, October 10, 2017.Photo: Elijah Nouvelage, Special to the Chronicle

47of 61Front gate to a property along WarnSprings Rd. in Glen Ellen on Oct. 9, 2017. Photo: Peter DaSilva/Special to The Chronicle

48of 61Brian Kitchen (left) and son Tarreyl Kitchen (right) wash their hands off in a pool after sifting through the remains of their house after it was destroyed in the Tubbs fire in the Coffey Park neighborhood of Santa Rosa on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017.Photo: Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

49of 61Police officers search for signs of Karen Aycock, a Coffey Park resident who has been missing since the Tubbs fire roared through her neighborhood, in Santa Rosa on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017.Photo: Noah Berger/Special to The Chronicle

50of 61Nikki Albrecht takes a break in front of her mother's destroyed home at the scene of the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa on Monday Oct. 9, 2017. Massive wildfires ripped through Napa and Sonoma counties early Monday, destroying hundreds of homes and businesses on Monday Oct. 9, 2017Photo: Michael Macor/The Chronicle

51of 61Smoke from the Tubbs fire is seen off of Bicentennial Way in Santa Rosa on Monday, Oct. 9, 2017.Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, The Chronicle

52of 61The remains of the homes in the Coffey Park neighborhood are seen from the air in Santa Rosa on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017.Photo: Elijah Nouvelage, Special to the Chronicle

53of 61The remains of the homes in the Coffey Park neighborhood are seen from the air in Santa Rosa on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017.Photo: Elijah Nouvelage, Special to the Chronicle

54of 61Smoldering fires are seen in the remains of the Hilton Sonoma Wine Country hotel in Santa Rosa on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017.Photo: Elijah Nouvelage, Special to the Chronicle

55of 61Alameda County Sheriff deputy carries in oxygen tanks to one of the wards at the at the Sonoma Developmental Center during a mandatory evacuation as the Tubbs Fire threatens the town of Glen Ellen, Calif. on Monday, Oct. 9, 2017.Photo: Peter DaSilva, Special to The Chronicle

56of 61Maria Norris and her husband Keith lost their home in the fire, in Santa Rosa on Monday October 9, 2017. Massive wildfires ripped through Napa and Sonoma counties early Monday, destroying hundreds of homes and businesses on Monday Oct. 9, 2017Photo: Michael Macor/The Chronicle

57of 61Keith Norris shows what his car destroyed in the fire looked like before the fire, in Santa Rosa on Monday Oct. 9, 2017. Massive wildfires ripped through Napa and Sonoma counties early Monday, destroying hundreds of homes and businesses on Monday October 9, 2017Photo: Michael Macor/The Chronicle

58of 61Homeowner Phil Rush looks at the remains of his home destroyed by wildfire in Santa Rosa on Oct. 11, 2017. Rush said he and his wife and dog escaped with only their medication, a bag of dog food when flames overtook their entire neighborhood on October 9. The toll from Northern California's ranging wildfires continued to grow as officials said the fires destroyed up to 2,000 structures and killed at least 17 people. Photo: ROBYN BECK, AFP/Getty Images

59of 61Arilyn Edwards, 6, stands beside her bike in front of the rubble of her Santa Rosa home on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017. The bike, which was a gift for her 6th birthday on Oct. 6, was destroyed as fire ripped through her neighborhood on Sunday evening.Photo: Guy Wathen, The Chronicle

60of 61Brian Gilman displays antique tea cups he found while digging through the rubble of his mother's home on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017 in Santa Rosa. "She lost everything but the clothes she was wearing, her medicine, everything else is gone except for the two cups she asked for. According to Gilman the cups are over 200 years old.Photo: Guy Wathen, The Chronicle

61of 61John Palmer, left, who escaped as flames surrounded his home, covers his eyes while waiting to return to his burned residence on Monday, Oct. 9, 2017, in Glen Ellen, Calif. At right is a resident who declined to be identified.Photo: Noah Berger/Special to The Chronicle

The onslaught of fires that laid waste to huge swaths of Northern California this month reached a new level of infamy Friday when the 36,432-acre Tubbs Fire in Sonoma County became the most destructive wildfire in modern state history.

The fire, which destroyed an estimated 5,300 structures, surpassed the October 1991 Tunnel Fire, which obliterated 2,900 homes and killed 25 people in the Oakland hills, as California’s most damaging fire.

“The latest count on the Tubbs makes it by far the most destructive fire in our state’s history,” said Daniel Berlant, the assistant deputy director for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. “I don’t think anyone going to bed that night could have imagined that we’d have this kind of activity and this much destruction. It’s just not the kind of perfect storm that can be anticipated.”

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KTVU meteorologist Steve Paulson says rain was a big bonus for the firefighters, and today will be cooler in the 60s with much better air quality.

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Two other fires that also broke out on Oct. 8 joined the Tubbs on the top 10 most destructive list — the 54,382-acre Nuns Fire, which wiped out at least 1,200 structures in Sonoma County, is now sixth, and the 51,624-acre Atlas Fire, which ravaged at least 741 homes and wineries in Napa and Solano counties, is 10th on the Cal Fire list.

The Tubbs Fire alone killed 22 of the 23 people confirmed dead in Sonoma County, making it the third deadliest wildfire in California, behind the Tunnel Fire and the 1933 Griffith Park Fire that left 29 dead in Los Angeles County.

The Redwood Valley Fire, which was among the cluster of fires that broke out nearly two weeks ago, is now the 10th deadliest fire in California history. Eight people died in that fire, which destroyed 36,523 acres and 545 structures in Mendocino County.

Twenty-one wind-driven fires broke out starting about 10 p.m. on Oct. 8 and spread overnight from ridge to ridge, through canyons and into neighborhoods in eight California counties. Propelled by gusts of up to 78 mph, dry air and warm temperatures, the flames spread rapidly and erratically, incinerating huge chunks of neighborhoods while sparing random houses and adjacent communities.

In all, the deadly blazes wrecked about 8,400 structures, burned through more than 245,000 acres — nearly 400 square miles — and prompted 100,000 people to evacuate, many with only the clothes they had on. The flames were so intense, especially in the Fountaingrove and Coffey Park neighborhoods of Santa Rosa, that they produced fiery tornadoes, flipping cars, uprooting trees and ripping garage doors from their hinges.

At least 42 people were killed in the deadly cluster of fires, but that number is likely to go up as recovery teams continue to sift through the smoldering rubble looking for remains. At least 37 people are unaccounted for in Sonoma County and three in Napa County.

Firefighters are investigating what started the wildfires. Teams of investigators are also analyzing the behavior of the various fires and what, if anything, could have been done to prevent their level of destruction.

The biggest problem in most of the fires, Berlant said, was the countless embers that were carried a half-mile to a mile in front of the flames. The embers rained down and ignited homes, which fell like dominoes, he said.

Firefighters in Southern California are used to clusters of wind-driven fires at this time of year. In October 2003, Santa Ana winds fed the ruinous Cedar Fire in San Diego County, which consumed 2,820 structures and is the third most destructive fire in the state, and the Old Fire, in San Bernardino, which wiped out 1,003 buildings and is seventh on the list.

But Berlant said nobody has seen anything like what just happened in Northern California, when extreme offshore gusts, known as Diablo winds, blew in at night and lit up like a blast furnace.

“We’ve had north winds that have blown at night, but we typically don’t see offshore winds in the night hours,” he said, referring to winds blowing in a southwesterly direction toward the ocean. “The wind is usually coming in from the ocean at night” and is therefore cooler, wetter and less likely to spread fire.

The fire situation in Northern California improved dramatically Thursday night and into Friday as the first rain since the fires started fell throughout the region.

The fire zones of Napa and Sonoma counties received more than six-tenths of an inch of rain. The area around Santa Rosa, the city hardest hit by the disaster, got 0.68 inches, according to the National Weather Service. The much-needed precipitation boosted optimism that the devastating flames will soon be controlled.

Rain also reached the fire zones in the Santa Cruz Mountains, with four-tenths of an inch recorded in the Boulder Creek area, where the Bear Fire sparked Monday night at a building and spread to 391 acres. The blaze injured seven firefighters, destroyed four structures and threatened about 150 homes. It was 45 percent contained Friday.

All the other fires in the region were approaching full containment, meaning dirt or natural fire breaks had almost been completed around the edges of the fires. The Tubbs Fire was 94 percent contained and the Atlas Fire, which killed six people in Napa County, was 87 percent contained Friday. The Cascade Fire, which killed four people in Yuba County, was fully contained, according to Cal Fire.

Fire officials predict full containment on all the fires — including the Pocket and Nuns fires — by Tuesday.

“The drum that we were beating the whole time (was that) we were fighting the weather,” Jones said. “It seems like we got exactly what we needed.”

Meanwhile, evacuees from Coffey Park were allowed to return to the Santa Rosa neighborhood Friday just as Pacific Gas and Electric Co. announced it had restored service to almost all of the nearly 400,000 customers who lost power in fire zones.

Once they were allowed in, the returnees slowly circled the ruined area, surveying the wreckage.

Reneé Hernandez wasn’t ready for the onslaught and wanted peace as she mourned the burnt-out shell of her home, where, the night before the fire, she and her children had tearfully buried their longtime pet Chihuahua, Chewee, underneath a jasmine bush that no longer exists.

“We’re just shocked and depressed,” she said. “We’re sifting through our lives trying to find something. We miss a lot of things.”

Berlant said the trick going forward is not just to throw money and resources at the problem, but to work with public agencies and politicians to improve education and planning and push for more fire safety provisions in building codes. Cal Fire plans to increase prescribed burning in the winter and initiate fuel reduction and other fire prevention projects in communities, he said.

It’s important because California’s warm season — when fires are likely to do the most damage — has increased by 75 days a year since the 1970s, according to studies by LeRoy Westerling, co-director of the Center for Climate Communication at UC Merced.

Westerling and other climate scientists predict Northern California and the Sierra Nevada will have to deal with hotter, more frequent fires in the future as a result of global warming.

“We will never completely prevent every wildfire. They were a natural part of California’s ecosystem long before we got here,” Berlant said. “It’s about adapting and making sure we are prepared.”